Armed Through Education: the Powerful Intricacies of the Video-Making Experience

As a UCLA undergraduate I had the great fortune to be a student in Dr. Rhonda Hammer's "Critical Media Literacy and the Politics of Representation: Theory and Production" class. As a result of her dedication and organization to a diversity of class components, we gained the skills necessary to speak another language - the language of media representation. Given the stereotypes of current students as being literate in new media technology, it was surprising to discover that the majority of students in my class had little experience. This course provided us with the necessary skills to be able to decipher stereotypical media representations and convey an alternate view that challenges the norm.